Too low tech for now
When they will integrate it with a camera and software to automatically calculate firing solution - I'll be interested.
Good news, office warfare fans - the USB Missile Launcher is back, in a new, flashier wireless version that makes for the strategic siting of remote batteries. Wireless USB Missile Launcher The USB Missile Launcher: can now be deployed remotely Like the wired version, the new launcher is controlled by a little targetting …
Pah! Fool had left it in 'baby safe' mode! Any competent sys-op would have up-rated the spring to full-on 'mean and nasty' mode. Along with replaceing the soft plastic tips on the darts with sharp metal points - purely in the name of improved aerodynamics you understand.
I bought the wired version, its a great little launcher, but it has a tendency to fire off loads of missiles when you ask it to only fire one. Some launchers fire off two, some more, and some just go round in a devastating four Patriot barrage (and the mech is still whirring away trying to fire more) - I pity the iraqis.
Have they solved it in this version El-Reg?
It works off a mechanical thing that doesn't always stop when it's fired one missile.
The other thing is it would be great if they'd release a dev-kit, at the mo we have to make do with poor under developed hack API kits - but wouldn't it be kewwwl if you could do it via a web browser?
Sweeet devastation.
Just need to know some details about the launcher.
Or you could just make a more industrial model yourself, add a camera and make it available via the web.
And decent undergrad or grad student with access to a machine shop to build the platform and house the mechanical pieces should be able to cobble something up....
Skip the laser since that means line of sight. What you need is some sort of in office "gps" system.
Unlike the wired version, this weapon appears to present an alluring target for enemy hackers wishing to remotely redirect its destructive power against its masters.
Military boffins advise the use of one-time pads.
As for Ms. Hilton, we must redouble our efforts to protect her from these new threats. It appears that she has been outfitted with a protective metal coating, which is a step in the right direction.
the newer one (wired) uses a spring to fire an air plunger. I get 15-20 feet consistently with mine. Problem is, the software hates Windows 2000-doesn't render right so to click the buttons to steer, you gotta click off them a bit.
Now I know there's linux and windows support for batteries of these, but you've gotta use up USB ports for each. I wonder if one wireless transmitter can control multiple launchers. If they're fixed to one channel, no one else in line of sight can have one of these. If they're different channels, you'd have to have multiple transmitters.
With a multi channel option, I wonder if one of those widgets that amplify or increase the range on IR based television remotes would work as a range extender? Could I hack the IR output of my PDA to drive this as well? Hmmm.
...when are they going to release the Wireless USB Orbital 1,000,000,000,000,000 watt death laser with sub-atomic space zoom and six port USB 2.0 hub? (Drivers only available for the Linux crowd.)
Say that demand after me....
"one biiiiillion dollllllaaaaarssss!"